“Come on, Daphne! Let’s get ready for the fashion show!” one of the twins yelled from the top of the stairs.
“Brielle, Bella, before you do that, come put your boots and snow stuff away, please.” Tabitha instructed as she freed Bryson from his cozy blanket and warm hat.
“Ugh, fine!”
The girls stomped down the stairs and did as they were told, hanging their coats and snowpants on the hooks by the door and setting their boots on the shoe rack. By that point, Daphne had finally gotten her snowpants off and hung them up, then the three of them raced back upstairs.
The chaos was a little preview of what was to come, and I loved it.
I followed Tabitha into the kitchen, where she set to filling the kettle and put it on the stove to heat, still holding Bryson on her hip.
“What kind of tea can I interest you in? I have English breakfast, green tea, and I restocked the herbal blend I discovered while pregnant with Bryson. It’s a blend of fennel, linden, and cinnamon, and it doesn’t have caffeine. It’s tasty and it helped relieve some of those pesky early trimester symptoms.”
“Oh, I’ll try that one,” I said. I’d always loved herbal teas, but I was relying heavily on them now.
Tabitha grabbed down two mugs and set them down on the island, then she grabbed the sugar bowl and tea from the cupboard.
“Can I help?”
“I’ve got it! You relax. I’ve become an expert at doing everything one-handed. You will too,” Tabitha chuckled, pressing a kiss to Bryson’s forehead. He giggled and squealed, grabbing at her face and returning the kiss with a drooly one of his own.
I smiled tightly, hoping that was true. Dr. Kramer’s cautions still bouncing around in my head.
“Everything okay?” Tabitha caught the strain in my smile, and concern lined her expression.
“Oh, yeah. It’s fine, I guess. I had my first OB appointment today. Everything’s going well, for now, but the OB wants to see me every week because I’m considered high risk.”
“Why are you considered high risk?”
“I have endometriosis,” I explained with a shrug. “It puts me at a higher risk of miscarriage or preterm birth.”
“I’m so sorry.” Tabitha put her hand over mine.
“It’s why I didn’t want everybody knowing until I’m out of the woods for miscarriage.” I sighed.
“That makes total sense.” Tabitha nodded, her eyes soft and understanding.
“But I’m going to have to tell Noah soon. I can’t expect him to let me take an afternoon off every week without explaining why.”
“He’ll understand,” she assured me.
I sent her a doubtful look, a million worst-case scenarios running through my head.
“It might take him a minute to come to terms with the news that he might be the father, but he’ll understand you need the time off and happily give it to you.” She said with a wry smile.
“I hope so,” my stomach still twisted with nerves. Although Sage and Tabitha both assured me I wouldn’t lose my job over being pregnant, I was still in the probationary period. They technically didn’t need to give a reason to let me go, they could say it wasn’t working out.
Bryson started whining and wiggling, pointing to the floor. Tabitha pressed another kiss to his head and set him down, letting him crawl over to the cabinets. He pulled a drawer open, revealing a collection of Tupperware, and started pulling containers out one by one. Tabitha didn’t seem to mind in the slightest.
“Sage should be here any minute,” she told me, setting the kettle on a different burner on the stove and grabbing another mug down and moved towards the Keurig. “I figured I’d brew her one too. I’m going to stick to coffee, since that one kept me up all night.” She jerked her head in Bryson’s direction, who was still happily pulling every single Tupperware out of the drawer.
“Teething?” I asked, taking a guess from his pink cheeks and the amount of drool dripping down his little chin.
“Yup, he’s getting some molars. I’ll be glad when all his teeth are in! He’s much more dramatic about it than the girls were. You’d think two babies teething would be more of a nightmare, but they were easy about it. Bryson, however, likes to make his discomfort known.”
“Poor guy,” I felt for him, and myself. There were so many facets to parenting that I hadn’t even considered yet. A baby keeping me up all night teething was another one of them, but I decided to worry about that in the future. For now, my focus was on how to get those afternoons off and telling Noah about my pregnancy.
“As for my cousin,” Tabitha said, grabbing the creamer from the refrigerator. “You’re probably making up worst-case scenarios in your head, and I can pretty much guarantee that none of them will come to pass. Noah’s great, really. You couldn’t have chosen a better sperm donor.”
